Today is the first day of the rest of your sequester, and the cuts are already coming—undocumented immigrants released from detention, furloughs on military bases, agencies scrambling to determine whom they won't be serving and what they won't be doing. The optimistic take on all this is that in a country where people regularly shout at their members of Congress, "Tell the government to keep its hands off my Medicare!", this could be an education. Start cutting back government services, and citizens will come to an understanding of some of the good things government does for them. Then that in turn will make the next crisis less likely, since the public won't stand for it.

But how much reason is there for optimism? We've been through government shutdowns before, after all, and we've had our debt-ceiling crises, and none of that seems to have helped. Not only that, this is just the first in a trio of crises: At the end of the month, the continuing resolution under which the federal government is operating runs out; if Congress doesn't pass another one, the government will shut down completely. Then in May we get to have another debt-ceiling standoff. "The greatest nation on Earth," Barack Obama said during his recent State of the Union address, "cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next." To which Republicans replied, "Oh yeah? Well watch this."

Perhaps this will all get resolved in short order. Some kind of deal will be worked out, and we'll be able to get back to our ordinary level of bitterness and recrimination. At this point, it'd be a blessing.

So They Say

"We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling, ups and downs. But the ride ends. And then you get off. And it's not like, oh, can't we be on a roller coaster the rest of our life? It's like, no, the ride's over."

What We're Writing

Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, which forces certain states and parts of others to pre-clear changes to election law with the Department of Justice went before the Supreme Court this week. Brentin Mock fights for the (sadly unlikely) continuity of the status quo.

We're Kalima-ing at the austerity altar that's ripped the heart out of the European economy and for no reason. Our deficit's already dropping, our economy's trending up, things are looking good. Why are we doing well? Mike Konczal explains that we built Keynesianism into our economics, hands free.

What We're Reading

BloombergBusinessweekprofiles America's official "bummer-outter" on the environment, Bill McKibben.

Indignation, resignation, sequestration. It's here, it's not going away, and we suppose there's no good reason not to know what it is, at least. So read the piece, find your congressman and start engaging in some defenestration.

Lanny Breuer's made an end of his term as the Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ's Criminal Division, at which he prosecuted exactly zero big bankers for the destruction of the world economy. But, he says, he looked into it.

The British have started a novel new collab with the U.S. government. Whitehall strips U.K. terror suspects of their British citizenship, at which point they're fair game for American assassination by drone. Maybe we can start doing tradesies soon.

Mexico City may be at the forefront of citizen activism. Fed up with an unresponsive government, average Mexicans have taken to the street to combat the high pedestrian mortality rate ... by becoming traffic-fighting luchador superheroes. Happy Friday, folks.

Poll of the Day

A Reason-Rupe poll out today shows that 57 percent of Americans believe the president's drone killings of American citizens are unconstitutional. Thirty-one percent found themselves on the wrong side of logic (or are just their authoritarian bona fides in early) and staked out a claim on the constitutionality of extrajudicial murder. Fifty-nine percent have said they are concerned that "the government may abuse its power" regarding drones, a lucid assessment, seeing as killing an American citizen isan abuse of power.

About the Author

Paul Waldman is a weekly columnist and senior writer for The American Prospect. He also writes for the Plum Line blog at The Washington Post and The Week and is the author of Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success.